I misjudged a bit when I decided to split up my posts covering the Calvin Conference, so this one will probably be drastically shorter. I'll divide the material by day like the last post, to finish writing about my great weekend at CSRYE conference.
Sunday, July 14:
I didn't know until after midnight that there was a district party, but I went there next after hanging out at the pool Saturday night. Most of the outbounds, inbounds, and rebounds were in the basement of our dorm building, and we ended up staying until 3 or 4am. It was a relaxed atmosphere and I mostly spent time talking with some inbounds and outbounds. We signed flags, wrote goodbye notes, and also brought down our blazers and pins to work on putting them on our jackets. Towards the end, some people started crying when they talked about leaving. I was close to crying after seeing some of the inbounds cry and there were surprisingly more people crying then, than when everyone was leaving Sunday afternoon. At around 4am, people went up to their dorms and I barely got any sleep. The dorms were uncomfortably hot, even with fans.
In the morning we had plans to meet up at breakfast to be able to say goodbye to our inbound friends. I found Autumn, an outbound to Taiwan, and Kim, an outbound to Japan, at around 7:30. After eating a little, we met up with the others. I said goodbye to some of the inbounds during breakfast only to see them again after, making it harder for us because we kept on thinking we wouldn't see each other again. We went outside and got some group pictures together while spending time with other students before we had to leave.
I miss them all, especially while writing this, but I'm sure I'll see some of them again sometime. I'll of course see Kim, Autumn, and Fiona again when we return from our own exchanges, but I hope I'll be able to see the inbounds again too. I know Madeleine will be somewhat close by in Belgium, and Alisa mentioned going to Germany in the winter and stopping by France. After becoming so close with people I've only met a couple times, I can't imagine how I'll feel when I leave after a year in France.
Later in the morning I left with Autumn and her parents, who were driving me and my mom back to South Bend. During the drive back, Autumn first heard from her host-sisters, which was exciting. It was great being there with her to see her new Taiwanese host-family and to Autumn, I'm super excited for you! She also got messaged on Instagram, similar to how I first heard from my host-brother.
When I got home, my mom and I went straight to the tv to watch the FIFA World Cup final. It was France v. Croatia and I of course was rooting for France. Everyone I had talked to, including my mom, said that they were rooting for Croatia, but I felt obligated to be on France's side. I went through my newly-acquired pins while watching the game. I had given away all of my pins, but I got over a 100 new ones. Then France won 4-2, so Vive la France!
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